The Alabama Children

  
     In modern times, there are many stories that relate to Dante's Inferno and the sin of the people in hell. The one that i choose to talk about in this blog is about a guy who supposably murdered two of his own children but right now they are just considered missing.  

     The news article I chose is titled "Alabama Children" and it takes place in mobile, Alabama. A man named John DeBlase supposably killed his 4 year old girl Natalie and his 3 year old son Jonathan. The remains of the little boy were found near Vancleave, Mississippi but the remains of the little girl have not been discovered, although, police believe that they are in Citronelle, Alabama. The father claims that he did not kill them but he did bury the bodies once he discovered them; "It was the father who gave us the general area, but he wasn't real sure exactly where he was. ... He claimed he had taken a lot of sleeping pills and didn't quite remember exactly where he was." Heather Keaton, the stepmother, is also being convicted but she claims that John did it and she asked for police protection from him "I feel he may have murdered his children, because he said they were non-responsive. He would not let me check on them." However in the end, Heather was arrested and charged with two counts of willful abuse and neglect of a child and John was also arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of abuse of a corpse. This article really strikes a chord of moral outrage in me because when i hear about people doing stuff like this to their own children, I can't process how they are okay with it. To me this crime is very disturbing and wrong and I don't see how someone could do that. What bothers me the most is that the people who were murdered were just children and didn't even get the chance to live out their life. Also that they were helpless and could do nothing to stop it. 

     Dante does in fact address the issue of murder in The Inferno. However even though Dante address this issue, he does not tell his exact emotions and moral beliefs regarding the murderers. It can be assumed though that Dante does not feel pity for the souls because he did not swoon and it sounded like he just walked through this part of hell. Dante however does talk about fraud in general; " Even now the pain of it in memory turns me cold. (127)" To me this quote represents that Dantes is frightened by these people and is in disbelief of what they have done. The punishment for the murderers is that they are submerged in boiling blood that represents the blood that was spilled out from those they killed. In John DeBlase's case the blood he would be submerged in would represent that of his daughter and son. I believe that Dante and I would be in agreement over this issue because Dante put these sinners in Hell and this shows his dislike for them by doing so.I would also do the same.

     In the end the murder of the two kids really goes against my moral beliefs and Dante also does not believe murder is right and find it disturbing and wrong.. So all in all this article relates to The Inferno by the sin of murder and the emotions of each.  

http://cnn.com/video/?/video/crime/2010/12/06/dnt.al.missing.siblings.cnn 

-this is a video

 (http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/08/alabama.missing.children/index.html?hpt=T1)

- this is the source